Little change from January was shown by Canada’s immigration backlog, minor changes were there as the data shown by IRCC.
The number of applicants in inventory has remained consistent with January data, at just over 2.1 million as reported by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The data is very recent as of January 31-February 1.
Since July 2021, the inventory across all lines of business has progressed as follows:
- January 2-3 2023: 2,152,220 persons
- December 3, 2022: 2,243,097 persons
- November 3, 2022: 2,411,388 persons
- September 30, 2022: 2,600,000 persons
- August 31, 2022: 2,583,827 persons
- July 15-17, 2022: 2,679,031 persons
- June 1-6, 2022: 2,387,884 persons
- April 30-May 2, 2022: 2,130,385 persons
- April 11-12, 2022: 2,031,589 persons
- March 15 and 17, 2022: 1,844,424 persons
- February 1, 2022: 1,815,628 persons
- December 15, 2021: 1,813,144 persons
- October 27, 2021: 1,792,404 persons
- July 6, 2021: 1,447,474 persons
Current Inventories
On January 3, the citizenship inventory stood at 301,388 applicants compared to 302,980 applicants as of February 1.
The permanent residence inventory stood at 521,552 people on January 2 compared to 523,557 people as of January 31.
As compared to 1,329,280 persons as of January 2, the temporary residence inventory stood at 1,294,974 people on January 31.
Therefore in 2 of the 3 major categories, there were increases. For temporary residence between January and February data, there was still a decrease of just over 34,000 applications in inventory.
| Immigration Category | Persons of January 31-February 1 |
| Temporary residence | 1,294,974 |
| Permanent Residence | 523,557 |
| Citizenship | 302,980 |
| Grand Total | 2,121,511 |
PNP and Express Entry Inventories
47,868 applicants for Express Entry programs are waiting in the queue as of January 31 as shown by the data from IRCC. Since the January 3 data, this is a small decrease of 541 applicants in inventory which initially stood at 48,409. In July last year, IRCC resumed holding rounds of invitations for Express Entry candidates from all programs.
Due to IRCC struggling to meet its service standard of six months or less for Express Entry applications, draws were limited to candidates in the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) between 21 September, 2021 and 6 July, 2022.
There was a pause in Express Entry invitations to Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) candidates which enable IRCC to reduce the Express Entry inventory and return to a 6-month service standard for the candidates who received an invitation to apply as of July 6.
The January PNP data was of 62,720 persons but was significantly increased to the PNP inventory of 66,214 total applicants for both base and enhanced applications combines.
Family Class Inventory
There was a slight drop from 125,631 to 124,771 applicants in the inventory for all family-class immigration programs.
There was a slight decrease in the inventory of The Spouses and Partners Sponsorship program, i.e., 61,481 applicants to 61,191 applicants.
Compared to 52,960 persons waiting for decisions in January, The Parents and Grandparents program now has an inventory of 52,801 persons.
Service Standard
For how long it should take to process an application, service standards provide the expected goal or timeline. The service standard is different from the actual amount of time taken by IRCC to process applications. Within the service standard for their program, applications not processed are categorized as backlog.
Within a reasonable amount of time, 80% of applications across all lines of business are aimed to be processed by IRCC. Depending on the type of application, this can vary. For example, there is a 6-month standard to process a permanent residence application through Express Entry. For other economic class lines of business, it is longer.
The service standard for spousal and child family class sponsorship is 12 months as stated by IRCC. Depending on the type of application, temporary residence applications have service standards that range between 60-120 days and if it was submitted from abroad or within Canada.
